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When I first talked about doing interviews for TeenBusinessForum, Corey suggested I interview the members. First thing I thought was yup! So I said, “Corey, how about an interview”? Seeing Corey had done so many projects, I myself wanted to learn more about her.  The first time I talked to her on Skype, she was like “Who the heck are you?”.  Haha, funny.  By the way, look out for Corey in a couple of years.  You’re going to be seeing that name again.

Corey Freeman is an 18-year-old female entrepreneur. She started the online publishing company Minus the Pie Media in January of 2010 and plans to attend North Carolina State University to pursue a degree in business administration. You can check out her personal blog at http://www.sneakyheathen.com

What’s Your Business?

I loosely define what I do as “internet publishing.” I create websites. I used to do freelance design work, freelance writing, and odd jobs, but decided recently to go in a new direction in pursuit of a bigger dream – owning my own megabillion dollar corporation. Difficult to do on a freelancer’s salary.

So right now I’m working on executing a few projects that I hope will start propelling me towards my goal. My most active project (which I recently cut from affiliation with my brand directly) is HeadwayHub.com. While the website is still successful, I didn’t want it as part of my official brand simply because that’s not the direction my company is going in. What I want to do is make websites and products the general public would enjoy and use, and that would benefit a lot of people.

If you could give one message to young business people struggling to get their business off the ground, what would it be?

Talk to your parents. Seriously, they know stuff. I really wish that I had spent more time explaining what I wanted to do to my parents and having their help and support.

If you could change anything or do something differently that you did when you were building your business, what would it be?

I would learn how to budget my money more, and create strict deadlines for projects. I find that a lot of my projects just go unfinished because I lacked discipline. I’d like to think that as I get older, I’m getting better at that. But my main point is – save your money. That way when you get “serious,” you’ll have resources.

Whats been your biggest mistake, and did you learn from it?

My biggest (and probably ongoing) mistake is trying to tackle too much at once. I’ve done just about everything – writing, design, consulting, even documentation for a 3D game engine – all in addition to running my own websites. Spreading yourself too thin will induce stress like you wouldn’t believe. Learn how to focus, and find something you actually want to focus on.

What kept you motivated and driven, even during failure or slow periods of productivity?

I’d have to say I have yet to fall into a good system for managing slumps, but I’ve found Jim Connolly’s mastermind motivation class really, really helpful. It’s actually the only think that has raised my motivation levels consistently and allowed me to keep working through dips. (http://jimsmarketingblog.com/the-motivation-master-class/) Other than that, just pick something you love and can keep growing with. My main motivation is probably the idea that one day I’ll have the resources to help people in extraordinary ways.

What’s the typical day like for you?

A typical day finds me sitting in front of my computer, mostly. Sometimes I’m actually doing work, and rapidly developing posts or websites (only to scrap the ideas later :’( ) or watching videos on Hulu. I can’t say that I stick to a specific schedule. I will say that everyday I strive to answer all of the forum questions that arise on the support forum I moderate, and I try to move at least one project forward.

When I’m not in my master & commander chair, I’m generally sleeping, watching TV with the family, or heading out to movies. I also go to lunch with mom a lot.

I have two dreams – build a hospital and own my own office building.

Do you have another passion besides entrepreneurship?

Writing is my talent. Music is my passion. So I sometimes like writing up stuff (I wrote a book recently) or about this time I would be doing marching band. I’ve been playing trumpet for 9 years now, and I’m hoping to continue that in college. I was the best player at my high school last year, and runner up freshman-junior year. I also got numerous “outstanding musicianship” awards and the 2010 best marching award from school. So that was pretty awesome.

If you didn’t have to worry about money, what would you do? (Somewhat related to the last question)

I’d probably still create websites, haha. I actually really enjoy learning about online development. I’d also do charity work. Stuff like building hospitals in Africa and India and organizing volunteers. If you’re going to do something, might as well make it count.

Oh, and I’d find a way to insect-proof a house.

Thanks for giving us your thoughts and advice.  Always looking forward to your new projects.